Alex Auguste Presents: My Beautiful Dope Contemporaries

Dope Past February Comes Alive in 2022 with The First Class of My Beautiful Dope Contemporaries, An Inside Look At the Names and Faces of Millennials And Their Ideals On Changing and Shaping the Future of Blackness In America.

History is a funny thing. In school it's a key subject that teaches you about times, places, culture, people, and events. It's essentially the basis of learning anything and everything, and so it's actually one of the most important subjects we can learn in school. And so, I've always been a history nerd.

History just happens to be the one subject that adds context to things you learn in every other class in school. It's the first thing you learn in your field of study because it's important to know the grounds that were broken, the key stakeholders in change, and the names of the folks who chose to go against status quo to make things happen. Soon, and hopefully not, history may very well be so skewed and twisted, that many of the key facts will be redacted or glossed over. With crucial conversations currently going on about editing histories of race, sex, gender, and now public health, the phrase "History in the Making" might be something we exclusively hear on a sports broadcast.

Amid this new era we're in, we're seeing the likes of Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye removed from classrooms and libraries. We're watching as pieces of literature that are contextually critical to the eras they were written in are bein pulled from shelves. The stories, their characters, and the critical thinking they inspire are being called "harmful" to young White students. That's the kind of revisionist history that lead us all to believe that all George Washington Carver did was whip some Jif (if it was that important, they would've named a peanut butter brand after him, right?). Unfortunately, what many people refuse to see is that Black History is American History, and where you dumb down our history, you dumb down your own.

Not if I can help it, though. Here's a quick story time.

Three years ago, I worked for a start up that had launched an internal Spirit Team that had a focus of allowing for internal highlights, celebrations, and acknowledgements of holidays, special days, birthdays, and the whole nine yards. To no major fault of their own, the startup wasn't entirely diverse. So naturally, the ranges of what was being highlighted or celebrated within the company were going to differ in some ways - that I acknowledge. And so, while there was a Luau Day, Hispanic Heritage Day, Gay Pride Day, and more, February was spent virtually quiet outside of enjoying, of course, Valentine's Day.

Part of me wanted to keep my head low with a side eye, while the other part of me fully acknowledged that if I wanted Black History Month to be recognized, it would be up to me to enlist this team - or even join them - to have them understand the healthiest scope, portrayal, and employee participation for celebrating as many facets of Black History as possible. It was just likely not going to be that way, especially since February had already kicked off.

Instead, I did keep my head low, and began designing brand new shirts for then-TagsByMarvel. The spirit of Huey P. really had me design 3 shirts in under 40 minutes, order them, and on the last day of the month, I wore my coffee brown shirt that said: "Always Black. Always Dope".

That was how our collection for Dope Past February came to be.

The collection released in March.

To me that collection is a reminder to us all that what we want to see celebrated as history in February, must be accomplished in the months thereafter and before. Our history is celebrated for a month, but the work we do takes place 365 days out of the year.

For March 2022, MRVL WRLD is launching our initiative into telling the narratives of individuals who are contributing to our collective history. My Beautiful Dope Contemporaries is a project that will be highlighting up to 8 Black Millennials from across the country, and bringing to light the work they do in their communities, through their work, and the missions they are on to change not just Black History, but the world all around them.

From creatives, to activists, entrepreneurs, and even professionals, their work has a special place in our history. They are deep in their passions, always keeping their eyes on the ideal futures that have a greater than good impact on individuals and families like the ones they come from. Their work extends from the Tampa Bay area, spanning coast to coast, with footprints around the world, and obviously - as Millennials always do - they have the digital footprint to speak for it.

To me that collection is a reminder to us all that what we want to see celebrated as history in February, must be accomplished in the months thereafter and before.

They're visionaries. I, like The Overseer in A Boy Bathed In Blood, am just here to make sure you hear their stories.

Read: 16 Books Being Removed From Polk County Libraries After Conservative Groups' Objections

Read: Book Ban Efforts Are Spreading Across the US

My Beautiful Dope Contemporaries will release to MRVL WRLD Youtube and Instagram pages, and will spotlight the work, the voices, and the history - both present and future - being shaped by our dope Black contemporaries in their respective fields.

For more, and to keep up with Developments like this by MRVL WRLD, be sure to subscribe and join I Am Alex Auguste for email updates, newsletters, discounts, and member perks.